Insight into Cells that Convey Data from Eye to Brain

July 19, 2018

A team of researchers identified molecular differences between retinal ganglion cell subtypes, information which could lead to a better understanding as to why some respond differently to injury or treatments.

The new study, published this week in Nature Communications, identifies 40 subtypes of retinal ganglion cells, which convey visual data from the eye to the brain, along with the genetic markers and transcription factors that differentiate them.

“This knowledge could help develop more effective therapeutics to treat optic neuropathies and glaucoma,” says Ephraim F. Trakhtenberg, of UConn Health’s Department of Neuroscience, who led the research with Paul Robson, director of single-cell biology at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX).

Single-cell RNA sequencing technologies are filling in fine details in the catalog of life. Researchers can now isolate single cells and amplify their genetic material to probe their full complement of RNA. This makes it possible to conduct a detailed census of cells of a given type, identifying subtle molecular differences that constitute subtypes.

Prior to this study, 30 subtypes of retinal ganglion cells had been identified. The research team selected them precisely because more of its subtypes have been identified to date compared to any other major neuronal cell type.

In addition to identifying new subtypes and their markers, the researchers demonstrate the amount of gene expression variability between cells needed to differentiate them into subtypes, and present a hierarchy from a cell type population to subtypes. The datasets for the study are publicly available through a user-friendly UConn Health web application, RGC Subtypes Gene Browser. See also: